Name: Gary Ewing
Title: Occupational medicine physician
Department: Environmental Health and Safety
Years at Carolina: I have been with the School of Medicine for 12 years. I worked out of the family and preventive medicine department for my first 10 years and have been working with clinical services for the past two years. Currently, I serve as the University's occupational medicine physician out of the Environmental Health and Safety Department.

The Health and Safety department has recently developed a new ergonomics program with the aim of reducing the risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Can you talk a little about what ergonomics is and how it affects people at work? Ergonomics has been defined as the science that deals with the interaction between people, their work place, and environment. Unfortunately, good ergonomic practice is easily overlooked and under appreciated. Most of us don't realize how much the little repetitive movements and posture we have at work can affect us. Repetitive movements, posture, lifting techniques, and inappropriate twisting, bending and other awkward positioning can definitely lead to long-term adverse health consequences. Even more than that, poor ergonomic practice can decrease today's productivity and make the workday drag on and generally lower quality of life. It is common that employees will experience subtle strains and tiring effects in their work day that they are not even consciously aware of. All of us wonder why we sometimes are so tired by the end of the day. Yet, it might be something as simple as how a person might lack support for holding up their head or repeatedly reaching at an odd angle or another combination of work practices that can be easily fixed. You can get immediate payback by paying attention to relatively simple things that, over time, will pay even bigger dividends. We can avoid potential injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or, for that matter, other kinds of pains and irritations that can involve any part of the body. As a bonus, we also can be a lot more productive.

Who can benefit from your services? There are two basic classes of people whom we’re trying to help. First, are those people who request assistance from the health and safety  department. Typically, I will get the opportunity to meet with these folks at their work station.  Occasionally, someone else from the health and safety department will go out to evaluate the work setting, then I will review the findings. Whoever makes the visit, there is a tremendous advantage to physically meeting people in their departments and showing them some of the things that we can offer. By looking at an individual interacting in their working environment, we can go beyond making suggestions for corrections. We also can assess specific needs. For example, if a person has anatomical challenges or previous injuries or other limitations, then we can facilitate personal and/or environmental changes. This would be impossible to do by using only tools like a Web site or a publication. We use information tools to supplement our personal approach rather than replace it. In short, you have to look at the individual and match his or her needs to their work environment. The second kinds of persons that we personally visit are those who have been referred to us either from the Thomson Health Center or other medical facility. These people may already have an injury or have signs and symptoms of early carpal tunnel syndrome, or maybe they have come back from a surgery or have other kinds of challenges. I try to see all these cases. I typically take a history of their injury and do a brief physical exam of the problem area in addition to the ergonomic assessment. I also assess their environment at home and other places and wrap up by ensuring they know to follow up with any care that they need. These kinds of cases involve worker's comp or sometimes injuries that may have occurred off the worksite but still may be exacerbated by their work environment.

Who else at the University works with the ergonomics program? Ken Mixon, Brian Hann, Buddy Harley, and Wesley Seigler. Ken has done extensive work with the Web site. Buddy does a lot of training with back safety. Brian oversees it all and has done a lot of evaluations himself.  Wesley helps make the appointments and keeps all the records current.

Do you have a Web site? Our Web site has a really good ergonomic primer on how you should take care of your work environment to get the least amount of stress as possible. The address is ehs.sc.edu. Go to the Industrial Hygiene tab and then to the ergonomics tab.

How can people get in touch with you?  Our number is 7-5269.

8/07